Coronary artery disease is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. The ability to better diagnose, monitor, and treat coronary artery diseases can be of life saving importance. Intravascular optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a catheter-based imaging modality that uses light to peer into coronary artery walls and present images valuable for the study of the vascular wall architecture. Utilizing coherent light, interferometry, and micro-optics, OCT can provide video-rate in-vivo tomography within a diseased vessel with micrometer level resolution. This level of detail made possible with OCT allows a clinician to diagnose as well as monitor the progression of coronary artery disease.
The quantitative assessment of vascular pathology and its progression involves the calculation of different quantitative measures such as pressure drops which can rely on the accurate identification of fluid flow and geometry of the lumen, including side branch geometry. Side branches extending from a lumen in OCT images are often not easily identified. In part, this results because side branches can be obscured by the guide wire used in various OCT probes or otherwise obscured by stent struts, blood, and shadows. Shadows and other imaging data artifacts can be challenging to resolve and eliminate. As a result, important landmarks along the length of an artery such as side branches can be mistaken for tissue or simply not identified. Given that placing a stent over a side branch can be damaging or even fatal for a patient and that certain pressure calculations require side branch data to be accurate, there is a need for a reliable technique that can identify side branches.
The present invention addresses these needs and others.